Originally published at: 18 attacked in squirrel rampage | Boing Boing
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Sounds like he knew it, and was gonna take some people with him!
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Satay Squirrel?
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Looks like southern fried squirrel to me-- white gravy and beans.
{ETA: now I’m hungry thinking about it. Southern-fried anything is A-OK by me.]
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The Welsh need to negotiate a better deal with the Squirrel Union, round this parts we just give’em what they want, and there is peace between the two species.
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Joshua Tree is overrun with Welsh?
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That’s nuts.
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Grey’s are highly destructive, they ring-bark saplings, raid bird’s nests for eggs and nestlings, and they carry squirrelpox, which native reds have no resistance to. Tree-rats, ie grey squirrels are considered cute by many, but they have no place in the ecology of the British Isles. Fortunately, they have a natural predator, which, along with most of the surviving red squirrel population, was largely restricted to Scotland, but is now appearing in various parts of the U.K., and that’s the Pine Marten. A really beautiful member of the weasel family, like otter, badger, polecat, etc, they’re arboreal, which red squirrels are fully adapted to, but greys aren’t, being bigger, heavier and less nimble.
Martens are now being seen in Wales and parts of England, including the New Forest, which is right down in the south, near the coast. Which also happens to be not far from the last holdout of the red squirrel in England. What’s being seen is that wherever pine martens show up, the grey squirrel population crashes, because they can’t escape along thin branches and jump to the next tree, so becoming a readily available lunch for martens.
It’s possible this particular grey knew its ultimate doom, and was venting it’s fury! It’s great to see a natural answer to an invasive species without any direct human intervention - nobody really seems to know why the pine marten is suddenly spreading back across the country, but it may be human interference is no longer happening, woodlands are being recreated, giving new routes for expansion.
Whatever, the grey’s days seem to be numbered at last!
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I think that squirrel had been watching too much YouTube of those vengeful monkeys going on their rampage.
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Yet another (tentative) reason, then, to like grey squirrels–aiding the recovery of pine martens!
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All the squirrel talk, I had to look up what is around here. Where I grew up, it was all almost red squirrels, but they don’t look like UK reds with the ear tufts. Where I live now it is almost all grey squirrels, but occasionally I see a red one and it is a treat.
We had an albino squirrel at my work, but he didn’t last too long. Pretty sure a red tail hawk who we have seen get rabbits and another squirrel got him.
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You probably saw a Fox Squirrel then
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I somehow didn’t know that black squirrels were a thing until my (then-fiancé) was showing me around the campus at Stanford and I saw a bunch of these guys running around. Not a different species, just a melanistic subgroup of other squirrel species like the grey squirrel.
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Yeah, I it looks like you are right!
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I love squirrels!
we have Eastern grey squirrels down here and I give them peanuts every day. they are fast and agile in the gumbo limbo trees in the yard and they will take flying leaps from those trees to the palm trees at my porch. the little female will wait for me to put the nuts out, clinging to the palm and will even take a peanut from my fingers (her partner wants no part of that). her little claws are long and wicked sharp! she has never scratched me, but I have felt those little needles! if I am late to the breakfast bucket, they bark and whistle and shake their bushy tails. they sound very cross and guilt me into refilling their buckets (that they have to share with the bluejays).
mornings on the front porch are a flying circus and a real show!
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We have 2 pairs of squirrels that live in the trees behind the building, brown ones and black ones. Some day I’ll care enough to figure out what actual species they are, perhaps. For now, we just enjoy their antics. Mostly. Except on days when the bakery is closed and they hold us hostage for nuts.
Not only does the bakery throw out stuff for the birds and squirrels, the confectioner next door has an employee that brings out walnuts for the squirrels on the days they’re open. It’s gotten so bad, they posted their back door sign on their Instagram:
So now, on Mondays when both businesses are closed, we get harassed by squirrels.
The black squirrels are immigrants from Kent, Ohio, which has a huge population of them. Every few years, the Cleveland media has a slow news day and sees a black squirrel and writes a “how did we get black squireels here?” and some professor from Case goes “I dunno.”
I know exactly how they moved from Kent to Lakewood, Ohio, where they were first spotted - inside porch couches. For decades, Kent students move up to the Cleveland area for work, and rent a cheap half a house in Lakewood with 3 or 5 other ex-students. One of them always brings their porch couch with them, and sometimes they have squirrel families living in them.
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